Mark Twain


  • Born- 11/30/1835
  • Died- 4/21/1910


Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. His real name was Samuel Langhorn Clemens. When Twain was around four years old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal was a growing port on the Mississippi river. Twain's dad was a judge. When his family moved to Hannibal, Twain's dad built a two story house. The house was built at 206 Hill Street in 1844. As a child, Twain did not have good health. He was kept inside his house until he was nine years old. He had become healthy enough by then to go outside and start playing with the neighborhood kids. His dad then enrolled him in a private school in Hannibal. When Twain was twelve, his dad passed away from pneumonia. Twain quit school at the age of thirteen to become a printer's apprentice. After he finished his apprenticeship, he started working with his brother at Orion's newspaper. He worked as a printer and an editorial helper. When Twain was seventeen, he left Hannibal, Missouri to go to St. Louis. He went to St. Louis for a printing job. On his trip to St. Louis, Twain became a river pilot apprentice. He then became a licensed captain of a river boat in 1858. Twain got his writing nickname from being a riverboat captain. In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon. He had four children. One of his children died when it was an infant. The other two died in their twenties. The other child lived to be eighty-eight years old. One of Twain's famous writings is "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County." Other famous writings include "The Innocents Abroad", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". By the end of his career as a writer, Mark Twain had written twenty-eight pieces of literature. Mark Twain was funny and knew how to get along with other people. He has many funny and helpful quotes that have been around for many years. Mark Twain also had perseverance which helped him write his books. One interesting fact is that Mark Twain's dad was a Tennessee country merchant. Another interesting fact is that Mark Twain died the night after he saw Haley's Comet. One of Mark Twains famous quotes is, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."